1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a network communication device technique, and more particularly to a technique in which a network communication device and a peripheral apparatus including the network communication device are operated so as to save power.
2. Related Art
At present, a printer, a scanner, or a multifunction machine (hereinafter, referred to as a “peripheral apparatus”) may perform printing by receiving printing data from a PC or the like or transmit image data scanned with the scanner to the PC or the like, via a communication network (hereinafter, referred to as a “network”) such as a wired LAN (Local Area Network) or a wireless LAN. Since there are many cases where the peripheral apparatus is supplied with power at all time in these use circumstances, recent peripheral apparatuses have a power saving mode mounted therein for reducing power consumption when not used.
For example, JP-A-2003-89254 discloses an invention in which an image processing apparatus includes a controller unit that can process or store image information and an input and output unit that inputs and outputs information to and from a network; if the image processing apparatus is in a normal operation mode, the controller unit controls the input and output unit so as to transmit and receive data; and if the controller unit transitions to a low power consumption mode, the input and output unit controls transmission and reception of data.
In JP-A-2003-89254, when a transition is performed from the normal operation mode to the low power consumption mode, a process is taken over to the input and output unit from the controller unit. At this time, it is necessary for data stored in a RAM (Random Access Memory) of the controller unit to be copied to a RAM of the input and output unit. In addition, it is necessary to initialize a communication interface. However, since the copy of data and the initialization of the communication interface take time, the transition process from the normal operation mode to the low power consumption mode also takes time. In addition, the same problem also occurs when a transition from the low power consumption mode to the normal operation mode is performed. In addition, since data received from the network may not be processed in the course of the transition, if the transition takes time, there is concern that the received data may be lost.